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Autodesk announce Maya 8.5
Posted on Wednesday the 10th of January, 2007
www.thedigitalfeed.co.uk/graphics/2007/01/10/autodesk-announce-maya-8-5
Autodesk's Maya 8.5 upgrade seems to primarily concern Autodesk's 'Maya Nucleus' technology. A few words about Maya Nucleus:
Maya Nucleus Unified Simulation Framework
Maya 8.5 marks the first installment of Maya Nucleus technology within Maya.
Maya Nucleus— Autodesk’s next generation unified simulation framework—is based on technology developed by award-winning Autodesk research scientist Jos Stam. The Maya Nucleus unified simulation framework is a linked particle system that interactively simulates a wide range of dynamic entities. It works with a variety of geometry types (curves, non-manifold geometry, meshes with holes, etc.) within a unified framework.
Using Maya Nucleus, some pretty advanced technologies have been developed - such as Maya nCloth:
Maya nCloth
As the first Maya module built on Autodesk’s new Nucleus technology, Maya® nCloth functionality lets you quickly direct and control cloth, and other material simulations, in entirely new ways. Maya nCloth objects can be as stiff, viscous or flowing, and as tightly or loosely woven as you desire. Rapidly create cloth-on-cloth simulations – such as a shirt over pants – with believable influences and collisions. Bend, stretch, shear, dent or even tear your Maya nCloth fabrics with ease. Beyond cloth, Maya nCloth lets you create deformable plastic and metal simulations, inflatable objects, as well as rigid-body and fluidic-type effects. Maya nCloth is only available in Maya Unlimited.
This sounds like an incredible feature. Imagine creating bouncy castles that deform and animate realistically, or series of cloth objects interacting correctly with each other. This could open up a whole new area of realism.
Speaking of realism, there are a number of mentalRay enhancements:
mental ray Shaders
Realizing physically accurate outdoor environments has become significantly easier as of Maya 8.5. New physical sun and physical sky shaders let you create photorealistic skies based on the position of the sun – all with the power of the highly acclaimed, physically based mental ray® rendering engine. Plus, new architectural and design shaders make it easier for you to create such effects as waxy floors, frosted glass, clay and sand-blasted metals.
And, as if that weren't enough, alongside MEL, we also now have a new language:
Python
Python, a powerful and accessible scripting language, is now available within Maya. Not only has Python been integrated into the software at the same level as the Maya Embedded Language (MEL), its bindings to the OpenMaya API give you an alternative language for plug-in development. Plus, the Maya Python modules can be imported into an external standalone Python interpreter for batch processing. With its higher-level language constructs, Python supports developer productivity while providing easily maintainable code. The language is also highly extensible, with a broad collection of third-party tools and modules freely available.
You can read more about these new features and enhancements at the Autodesk Maya homepage.
Maya Nucleus Unified Simulation Framework
Maya 8.5 marks the first installment of Maya Nucleus technology within Maya.
Maya Nucleus— Autodesk’s next generation unified simulation framework—is based on technology developed by award-winning Autodesk research scientist Jos Stam. The Maya Nucleus unified simulation framework is a linked particle system that interactively simulates a wide range of dynamic entities. It works with a variety of geometry types (curves, non-manifold geometry, meshes with holes, etc.) within a unified framework.
Using Maya Nucleus, some pretty advanced technologies have been developed - such as Maya nCloth:
Maya nCloth
As the first Maya module built on Autodesk’s new Nucleus technology, Maya® nCloth functionality lets you quickly direct and control cloth, and other material simulations, in entirely new ways. Maya nCloth objects can be as stiff, viscous or flowing, and as tightly or loosely woven as you desire. Rapidly create cloth-on-cloth simulations – such as a shirt over pants – with believable influences and collisions. Bend, stretch, shear, dent or even tear your Maya nCloth fabrics with ease. Beyond cloth, Maya nCloth lets you create deformable plastic and metal simulations, inflatable objects, as well as rigid-body and fluidic-type effects. Maya nCloth is only available in Maya Unlimited.
This sounds like an incredible feature. Imagine creating bouncy castles that deform and animate realistically, or series of cloth objects interacting correctly with each other. This could open up a whole new area of realism.
Speaking of realism, there are a number of mentalRay enhancements:
mental ray Shaders
Realizing physically accurate outdoor environments has become significantly easier as of Maya 8.5. New physical sun and physical sky shaders let you create photorealistic skies based on the position of the sun – all with the power of the highly acclaimed, physically based mental ray® rendering engine. Plus, new architectural and design shaders make it easier for you to create such effects as waxy floors, frosted glass, clay and sand-blasted metals.
And, as if that weren't enough, alongside MEL, we also now have a new language:
Python
Python, a powerful and accessible scripting language, is now available within Maya. Not only has Python been integrated into the software at the same level as the Maya Embedded Language (MEL), its bindings to the OpenMaya API give you an alternative language for plug-in development. Plus, the Maya Python modules can be imported into an external standalone Python interpreter for batch processing. With its higher-level language constructs, Python supports developer productivity while providing easily maintainable code. The language is also highly extensible, with a broad collection of third-party tools and modules freely available.
You can read more about these new features and enhancements at the Autodesk Maya homepage.